Day Twenty Four - Wildcard
“Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.” Cal Newport
Today’s challenge is to build your focus and attention.
We live in an increasingly distracted world, and our ability to focus continues to erode. An alarming survey in 2015 of Canadian media consumption by Microsoft concluded that the average attention span had fallen to eight seconds, down from 12 seconds in the year 2000. Why is the 8 second period relevant, it’s important because we now have a shorter attention span than goldfish!
According to Cal Newport, the ability to focus and perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare while becoming increasingly valuable1. If you like me, want to develop greater focus and increase your attention span, then read on for some ideas to strengthen your mental muscles:
Plan today to execute tomorrow. Take time today to create a task list and diarise to ensure success tomorrow. (time blocking)
Prioritise by importance. Divide tasks by priority, write down what is important (and ignore everything else).
Get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to lower alertness and concentration. It’s more challenging to focus and pay attention, so you’re more easily confused.
Create environments that support focus. Physically find a space for you to do your best focus work, silence your digital devices (Do Not Disturb mode) and socially surround yourself with people who respect your focus time.
Practice the Pomodoro technique. Set a time period for deliberate focused work, say 25 or 90 minutes, and then break to give your mind a rest. Technology apps such as ‘focus keeper’ can be useful for this.
Uni-tasking. Re-learn to do one thing at a time the attention residue from multitasking reduces performance.
Being focused allows us to master complicated things quickly, and in a constantly changing work environment, the ability to learn quickly is important.
Creating and maintaining focus is hard, but like any muscle, it becomes easier with practice. So, what might you try today to master focus?
Reference
Deep Work. Rules for focused success in a distracted world. Cal Newport. 2016
8 ways to improve your focus www.fastcompany.com
Sleep and focus www.webmd.com
Further reading
Read: Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction lifeofproductivity.com
Listen: Chris Baily hyperfocus-with-chris-bailey
Watch: How to tame your wandering mind www.ted.com/amishi_jha
** Disclaimer – Part of the Build Your Ideal Day Program – 30 Day challenge by Duncan Young. All content and media on the Build Your Ideal Day Website is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.
